Cheap Healthy Recipes For Familes in Today's Economy

Cheap,
healthy recipes are the order of the day for most families now. Cheap means
less than $1 per portion. Use healthy family recipes to introduce your family
to low fat, low sugar and healthy portion size.

Use
home-made marinades and sauces wherever you can. They are cheaper and more
healthy because you can cut out the sugar and salt that make up a large part of
any commercial recipes.

Grow
your own herbs to add taste, rather than using salt or stock cubes. Meanwhile,
dried herbs are cheap and work well.

Use
dried beans instead of tinned ones. The dried ones need a little planning
ahead, to soak them, but they contain no salt or sugar.

Cheap
and healthy recipes are easier if you can buy your meat at half price or less.

Find
out when your local supermarket reduce the prices of short-dated meat and fish.
Short dated fish does not taste ANYTHING like fresh or even frozen fish, and it
is probably better to use cheap frozen fish and marinade it.

Short
dated chicken and turkey should be dated 2 days ahead to avoid meat that has
gone off. Short dated pork, lamb and beef will rarely give you any problems,
even if bought on the sell-by date. Cook and freeze on the day you buy it for
maximum safety.

Never
throw away leftover meat and bones; you can probably get another meal out of
that chicken carcase, you can certainly use it to make stock.

Buy
fresh vegetables that are in season. Never throw away leftover vegetables, put
them in the soup next day.

All
recipes are for four people. To cook cheap and healthy recipes you need to keep
a well-stocked store cupboard of basic ingredients like herbs, balsamic vinegar
and canned tomatoes.

Any
recipe from any source can be changed to suit what you like and what you have
in the cupboard.

Cheap
Healthy Lunch Recipes

Store
Cupboard Essentials for Cheap, Healthy Lunch Recipes

Dried
kidney beans

Onions

carrots

Canned
tomatoes

Chilli
sauce

Dried
butter beans

Dried
brown lentils

Split
red lentils

Turmeric

Dried
chopped coriander

Make Your Own Chicken Stock

Chicken stock is the basis of so much healthy cooking, yet lots of people do not know how to make it.All you have to do is to boil up the chicken carcase or frame when you have cut all the meat off it. Don't use too much water if you want a good tasting stock. Do not add onions, salt or anything else.

Soups
make superb lunches

Kidney
Bean and Onion Soup

Soak
1 cup of kidney beans overnight. Rinse them until there is no more froth. Boil
the kidney beans in 2 cups of stock or water without salt and without stock
cubes until soft, about 45 minutes. Add a can of chopped tomatoes and 2 large
chopped onions and a clove of garlic and cook for another 30 minutes. Add a
good dash of chilli sauce.

Extra
ingredients: none

Butter
Bean and Zucchini Soup

Soak
1 cup of butter beans overnight. Rinse them until there is no more froth. Boil
in 2 cups of unsalted water or stock for 45 minutes. Slice and cook 2 large
zucchini on a griddle or health grill, without oil, until they start to go
brown. Chop the sliced zucchini and add them to the butter beans. Add 1 chopped
onion and boil for 20 minutes.

Extra
Ingredients: 2 large zucchini

Brown
lentil and mushroom soup

Rinse
1 cup of brown lentils, but there is no need to soak them. Chop the mushrooms.
Chop 1 onion. Cook the lentils, onion and mushrooms in2 cups water or unsalted stock for 30
minutes. Add fresh parsley and serve immediately.

Extra
ingredients: mushrooms, fresh parsley

Carrot
and Red Lentil Soup with Turmeric

Chop
1 onion and 1/2 pound carrots. Boil 1 cup of split red lentils, the onion and
carrots in 3 cups water or stock with a level teaspoonful of turmeric for 1
hour. Add chopped coriander to taste.

Green Pea Soup

Chop
I onion and 1 potato. Put 1 cup of green split peas in 4 cups of water. Ad the
chopped potato and onion and boil for 1 hour. Add bacon scraps or 1/2 can of tuna
for variety.

Potato
and Leek Soup

4
cups good chicken stock are essential for this soup. Chop 3 potatoes and 2
leeks, including all the green leaves. Boil for 40 minutes,

Extra
ingredients: 4 cups chicken stock

Cheap
Healthy Dinner Recipes

Store
Cupboard Essentials for Cheap, Healthy Dinner Recipes

Onions

Garlic

Mustard

Balsamic
vinegar

Green
Thai curry paste

Lime
jelly or marmalade

Olive
oil spray

Fennel
seeds

Dried
garlic granules

Soy
sauce

Egg
noodles

Marinated
and fried white fish

Make
a marinade from 1 tablespoon of green Thai curry paste, 1 teaspoon of fennel
seeds, 1 lime, 1 tablespoon of lime jelly, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.
Coat 4 pieces of frozen white fish with the marinade and leave them to thaw
out, about 3 hours. Spray a non-stick frying pan with olive oil and heat. Fry
the thawed fish fillets, trying to keep as much of the marinade on them as
possible. Turn the fish fillets once, after 3 minutes. Serve with potatoes,
grilled tomatoes and broccoli.

Extra
ingredients: 4 white fish fillets, 1 lime.

Marinated
and grilled turkey breast

Make
a marinade from 1 tablespoon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of dried garlic granules, 1
tablespoon of green Thai curry and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Coat 4
turkey breast steaks with the marinade and leave for four hours in the fridge.

Either
fry using olive oil spray in a non-stick pan, or cook on a health grill for
about 5 minutes. Serve with new potatoes, grilled tomatoes, peas or your choice
of vegetables.

Extra
ingredients: 4 turkey breast steaks.

Irish
Chicken Chow Mein

Boil
up a chicken carcase left over from dinner in 1 cup of water. Remove the
carcase and leave to cool. Strip all the meat from the carcase and put it on a
plate. Put the bones on a separate plate. Boil up the bones with 2 more cups of
water for 2 hours. Throw the bones away. Combine the original chicken stock
with the weaker stock you just made from the bones.

Chop
1 onion, 3 sticks celery, quarter of a small cabbage and left over vegetables.
Put them in the stock with the chicken meat and boil for 20 minutes. Add a good
dash of soy sauce and a packet of egg noodles. Simmer for 5 minutes and serve.
Add chilli sauce for variety.